PREPPY POINDEXTER

WORDS BY Starla Gatson
PORTRAITS BY Kelly Moore Clark
LIFESTYLE IMAGES COURTESY OF Preppy Poindexter

A young Lincoln Powell, Jr. looked at himself in the mirror, eyeing his Girbaud jeans with the orange straps and matching sweater vest. He was only headed to his high school’s homecoming game, but he wanted to be certain he looked sharp. Powell says, during this time — his adolescent years — he was searching for something to be known for. “Around junior high, high school, those are the developmental years where you’re figuring out who you are, what you like, and being that I wasn’t athletic, sports weren’t my thing. So, I was always trying to figure out what is my thing, what will I be good at, what will I be known for?” But after attending this particular event dressed to the nines, it seemed the teenager’s search for something to call his own was coming to an end. “Around this time, I think Kanye West was rising to stardom, or he was already there, and I remember this young lady calling me Kanye,” he recalls. “She was like, ‘Oh, you kind of dress like Kanye,’ and for me, that was a confidence booster, so I was like, ‘Maybe clothing is my thing.’”

Powell says he then took advantage of every opportunity to dress up, whether he was going to a party at a friend’s house or attending a basketball game in his school gymnasium. “I always overdressed, and I always stood out. People just thought that I looked very nice and dressed very clean,” he says. The more his peers took notice of his style, the more Powell’s fascination with fashion grew. His interest grew until, one day during his high school years, the proud Lake Providence native began dreaming of his own clothing brand — a dream that would become a reality in 2013 when Preppy Poindexter was born.

“It started with t-shirts,” Powell explains. He was just a junior at the University of Louisiana Monroe at the time, working toward an undergraduate degree in mass communication, when he made the decision to give the clothing business a try. With the help of a graphic designer friend, Powell designed a logo and had it printed on a few t-shirts he would sell on campus. The winter months were fast approaching, Powell remembers, so he decided to sell sweatshirts as well, and from there, the public’s interest in Powell’s clothing began to grow. “Several of the AKAs purchased sweatshirts, and that kind of kicked everything off. Imagine twenty plus women walking around with pink and green sweatshirts on a college campus. People just started inquiring about it, and it went from there.”

Now, Preppy Poindexter has come a long way from its humble beginnings, and in addition to t-shirts and sweatshirts, Powell has added polo shirts, hats, socks, shorts, and dresses to his merchandise list. Each product is emblazoned with the company name or logo — a giraffe wearing a bowtie and glasses, with the animal representing individuality, grace, perception, and farsightedness, according to the brand’s website, and its accessories paying homage to Powell’s personal style. “I always wore a bowtie with a pair of glasses, and one Sunday, when I was at home, my uncle, who likes to joke a lot, was visiting us and said, ‘Boy, I heard you’re at school dressing like a poindexter,’” Powell says. “And around that time, I was trying to come up with a name for the clothing brand, but nothing that I came up with really stuck out or stood out. So, as I was going back, of course, poindexter was cycling through my head, and I remembered this young lady telling me that no matter how I dressed, it always came off as preppy. So, I ended up putting preppy and poindexter together, and that is where I got the name from.”

Despite the implications of the name, however, Powell designed his brand to appeal to all, not just those who fit the typical preppy or poindexter stereotypes. “When they hear Preppy Poindexter, a lot of people think that you have to dress preppy. And for me, that’s not it at all. For me, preppy is your demeanor and how you carry yourself, and then poindexter as it references the brand is just anybody who is out there being true to themselves, doing what makes them happy, and following their calling in life. You definitely don’t have to dress preppy.”

Powell earned a master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and is currently employed as a therapist at The Center for Children and Families, but fashion remains his passion, and he hopes to one day be able to pursue Preppy Poindexter full-time. “I would want a store, definitely get more into cuts and sews, and work on marketing the brand better and reach more people,” he says of his future ambitions. He’s thinking and dreaming ahead, but for now, Powell’s present workflow gives him the best of both worlds, prioritizing his family therapy clients and running his own clothing brand.

Between his work with The Center for Children and Families, keeping up with orders, answering emails, checking inventory, and handling customer service, the young business owner’s days are no doubt quite full, but luckily for Powell, Preppy Poindexter is not solely a one-man show. He gets by with a little help from his friends…and his mom. “At this time, physically, my mother helps me,” he says of the business. “She lives in Monroe as well and she helps with packing orders, writing on the cards that actually go in the packages, or printing orders.” As far as developing new designs and phrases for the clothing goes, Powell’s college graphic design background is definitely beneficial, but it’s the opinions of his friends that often help him make the final decisions. “Some of my frat brothers, my friends, I call them like, ‘Hey, what do you think about this?’ or ‘Does this phrase resonate with you?’ and I just kind of bounce ideas off of them.”

The design process and finding mantras that are meaningful to others is important for Powell, as the clothing’s slogans are, in his opinion, a large part of what makes Preppy Poindexter stand out from the rest. “For the most part, a lot of the messages that I put on the shirts aren’t things that you can hear on a day-to-day basis,” he explains. “Or, they may be things that you’ve heard growing up or when you were younger, and kind of like, ‘Oh, I remember that,’ and it resonates.” Regardless of what slogans Powell chooses to put on his merchandise, one thing is certain: each and every design will communicate that Preppy Poindexter is a premium clothing brand and will stay true to the intent of the business. “The whole mission is just to create timeless articles of clothing that I feel like you can wear now and fit in, and you can wear in the future and fit in,” Powell says. “I just want to reflect creativity, inspire people to be themselves, and promote positivity.”

To purchase Preppy Poindexter products, visit www.preppypoindexter.com, and follow the brand on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to stay up to date on the latest news, product releases, and sales.